Dear human, thank you for sharing and reaching out. It must have been very difficult to live with this anxiety and it’s associated negativity and it’s completely understandable. I appreciate your decision of taking the first step, seeking help, in your mental health journey. You’ve said that you feel anxious about your health which is quite understandable but to understand it completely, we need to discuss further about how it happens and why, which can be done through therapy. There is a huge difference between being normally concerned about your health with visible symptoms and being anxious about nothing or very small symptoms. It can be considered as severe anxiety only if you’re extremely scared of developing a major illness out of very small symptoms or nothing and if this fear mitigates your daily functioning in all aspects. Worry not, you don’t have to go through this alone, we could figure this out together during therapy.
Some self-care techniques that might be of help:
1. Take care of your health by consuming a healthy diet, eating on time without skipping meals, sleeping and waking up early and developing a proper sleep schedule. Exercise daily like workout, taking a walk, yoga, or involving in any kind of physical movement that you prefer.
2. Practise mindfulness - Start gradually by practising it for a shorter time period like 10-15 minutes and later can be manifested into daily activities like mindful bathing, mindful eating, mindful walking, etc. You can start by using 5-4-3-2-1 exercise, that is to be in the present moment and name five things that you can see, four things that you can hear, three things that you can touch, two that you can smell and one thing that you can taste. This helps in focusing on present moments without thinking or being anxious about the future.
3. Talk to someone about how you feel about this or do journaling, write down your thoughts daily if you do not prefer to talk to someone. This could help in venting out your pent up anxious energy.
Next Steps
Please book an appointment with me via practo, as we go about understanding your thought patterns and find a beneficial way out of it through healthy coping mechanisms.
Hope to hear from you soon - take care.